STORIES OF THE STORIES
Rebirth
What remains when the demolition team has come and cleared out our history? What can we hold onto? The Sun Café’s founding family, the Obayashis, gathered at the site to commemorate its closing in 2009. Rebirth is based on the article "Sun Cafe Closes Its Doors" by Yukio Kawamoto, from Footprints, 2009, with additional information from Liz Yamada and Jon Obayashi. (TVD)
CHARACTERS PORTRAYED:
Becky Obayashi
Suye Obayashi
Overcooked
The Jeong family operated the Sun Cafe from 1961 to 2008, first while leased from the Obayashis, and then after purchasing the restaurant outright in the mid-1970s around the launch of the Gaslamp Quarter revitalization (in a sale brokered by, naturally, Tom Hom).
Early times were sometimes rough, including a kitchen fire that could have been disastrous. (KLB)
CHARACTERS PORTRAYED:
Ming Jeong
Mabel Jeong
Fireman
Nate Harris
Soup's On
Prior to settling in for a run as the oldest restaurant in San Diego (San Diego Union-Tribune), the actual building housing the Sun Cafe had a colorful past. Owned and sold more than once by Alonzo Horton, it also served as a funeral parlor and candy store before the Obayashi family set it up as a shooting gallery. It turns out Uichiro "Joe" Obayashi's soup was more popular than his shooting range, and in 1921 they changed their business into a restaurant and took a different role in San Diego's growth. (KLB).
CHARACTERS PORTRAYED:
Uichiro "Joe" Obayashi
Suye Obayashi
Nate Harris
Money King
Murray Lee has compiled a wealth of information about Chinese Americans in early San Diego. One of the colorful episodes in his book In Search of Gold Mountain: A History of the Chinese in San Diego, California concerns a local tradition of small-scale lotteries
that were illegal but ubiquitous, right up until the city-wide cleanup for the California Exposition of 1935. One operation was called the Money King, owned and operated by the second son of the unofficial "Mayor of Chinatown," Ah Quin. (KLB)
CHARACTERS PORTRAYED:
Tom Quin
Policeman
Ten Cent Western
As part of the Obayashi family, Eugene and Joe Yamada are brothers who have rich memories of “growing up” in the Sun Cafe during the 1930s and 40s. During World War II they were sent to the internment camp at Poston, Arizona, where Joe met the love of his life, Elizabeth “Liz” Kikuchi. After the war, they returned to the Café and continued the journey to find their place. Ten Cent Western is based on an interview with Joe Yamada, Liz Yamada
and Eugene Yamada on February 13, 2015, and “The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s Pioneers of American Landscape Design: Joseph Y. Yamada Oral History Interview Transcript,” which was conducted July 18-20, 2011 by Charles A. Birnbaum and Gina M. Angelone. (TVD)
CHARACTERS PORTRAYED:
Eugene Yamada
Joe Yamada
Emi Obayashi
Al Obayashi
Elizabeth Kikuchi
Rabbit Stories
Tom Hom's autobiography "Rabbit on a Bumpy Road" turns out to be an eventful first-hand perspective on much of the era of the Sun Cafe. The book provided the starting point for follow-up interviews that helped choose key points in that rich and lengthy narrative: starting young in the family produce business, learning farming first hand, breaking barriers in real estate, and pioneering in local and state politics. (KLB)
CHARACTERS PORTRAYED:
Tom Hom
David Hom
Les Gehres
other historical characters
I've Got a Gal
Clara Estelle Breed was a librarian at San Diego's Downtown Public Library. She is especially remembered for her support of Japanese American children during World War II, particularly those who were sent to the internment camps. She answered hundreds of letters from these Nisei children, providing them with many supplies unavailable to them in the camps. She was vocal about her opposition to Executive Order 9066, which sent the Japanese to internment camps to begin with--writing letters to Congress and publishing articles about the unfair treatment. (CC)
CHARACTERS PORTRAYED:
Clara Breed
Young Girl (composite of Elizabeth Kikuchi and others)
From Coffee to Nuts
In Murray Lee’s book, In Search of Gold Mountain: A History of the Chinese in San Diego, California, he writes that “from 15,000 to 20,000 Chinese Americans served in the armed forces during World War II. This represented 19 to 25 percent of the Chinese living in the continental U.S., compared to 11.5 percent of the total population in the military.” “From Coffee to Nuts” is based on excerpts from Murray Lee’s interviews with veterans Gormon Fong, Miles Hom, Robert Fong and Jennings Hom. (TVD)
CHARACTERS PORTRAYED:
Gorman Fong
Miles Hom
Robert Fong
Jennings Hom
Hom Yu
The first part of this story is based on my own uncle, who had a gift for navigating any city from restaurant to butcher shop to bakery, trips which often included old favorites--including hom yu. The second part of the story is adapted from the article Chanko Nabe: Green Eggs and Ham Yu by Joyce Teague, published in the Footprints Newsletter, summer of 2004. (GL)
CHARACTERS PORTRAYED, Part 1:
Gene Lowe
CHARACTERS PORTRAYED, Part 2:
Joyce Teague
Mich Himaka
Tetsuden
Gwen
Wendy
Rev.
Sachi
Karen
Fred Nabeta
Johnny Comes Marching Home
In writing this piece, I was honored to speak with Jon Obayashi about his childhood, the restaurant business, and his favorite music from the fifties. John's story is about his parents and something he said, that sounded an emotional tone with me, about their time after the war: "I never heard them complain, they just got back to work." I hope you see the resilience and strength that Mr. Obayashi shared with me in this piece. (K6)
CHARACTERS PORTRAYED:
Emi Obayashi
Al Obayashi
Jon Obayashi (offstage)
Shikata ga nai
Although the forced internment of Japanese Americans during WWII may be familiar, some followed other paths. One of the more unusual was the forced repatriation of Japanese citizens who had lives and families in America but were not technically U.S. Citizens. There were children forced along with their parents, and first-hand journals archived at Cal-State Dominguez Hills helped reconstruct this traumatic journey. (KLB)
CHARACTERS PORTRAYED:
Florence Ueno
Hanako
Emma’s Neighborhood
The Chinatown “Stingaree” neighborhood of downtown San Diego has been described as “seedy”, but for Emma Hom it was home. She played and roamed the streets there as a child during the 1950s. Her family was one of the last to leave in 1958. Emma’s Neighborhood is based on an interview with her on April 17, 2015. (TVD)
CHARACTERS PORTRAYED:
Emma Hom & family
Keep Busy
Umeko “Meko” Kawamoto worked as a waitress at the Sun Cafe for many years after World War II. She could balance four plates at once, but also balanced her work life with her “real” life, which was a joyful dance of being a wife and mother. Keep Busy is based on an interview with Umeko Kawamoto, February 6, 2015 and Linda Libby’s Lifestages’ Stories of Faith Performance with Playwrights Project, Fall 2004. (TVD)
CHARACTERS PORTRAYED:
Umeko Kawamoto
Sunset
Although eventually priced out by night life-focused and deep-pocket chain restaurants that came to dominate
the Gaslamp, the Sun Cafe found a niche providing inexpensive comfort food for a variety of downtown residents. Even though it's run as a nexus of San Diego's Asian and non-Asian communities has ended, the Sun Cafe remains an icon for the people who lived around her, and for the rich history of San Diego itself. (KLB)
CHARACTERS PORTRAYED:
Mabel & Ming Jeong
Richard Carlson
Harold Gee
Joey Harris
Jared Harris
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